4 Creative Lessons from Younger Me

She had some points 💖

I just got back from spending a week in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona. I don’t go very often; my last visit was four years ago. (Dad, if you’re reading this, I promise to start coming once a year!) I was there on a specific mission to help reorganize my childhood home, which included, among other things, sorting through all my old boxes of memorabilia.

I’m not sure how recently you’ve revisited your youth in such a tactile way, but it’s a humbling experience. Going through six 27-gallon bins of everything I’d saved from ages roughly 13-23 was overwhelming. Letters, diaries, photos, keepsakes - all things that had been so important and meaningful to me during those incredibly formative years.

It brought up a lot of emotions, feelings, and memories, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by my voracious appetite for making things. Every sheet of notebook paper had intricate doodles filling the margins. There were carefully crafted mementos and notebooks covered in collages. It brought me instantly back to all the years I spent in that adobe bedroom, crafting day and night.

I believe that we’re born who we are. That while we evolve and grow, our core personality doesn’t change. This theory rang true as I rifled around elbow-deep in paper ephemera. I found hand-made theme party invitations, journals I’d spent hours filling with feelings, and piles of photobooth strips. Aside from making drastic improvements in my hair and clothing decisions, not much has changed.

While I usually spend my days looking forward, thinking about the next project, next adventure, next big idea, it was an invaluable exercise to look back for a while. To be reminded that my adolescence wasn’t fruitless - that I’ve always been building to where I am now. The burning need to create at all costs has been in me since day one.

Here were a few takeaways on creativity my younger self had to offer…